Read More

Luckily the British Parking Association, which keeps track of and provides machines for bodies like the council, prepped for the change in advance.

They say on a statement on their website: “Most parking machine manufacturers are members of the BPA and they say they are positive they will be able to manage the upgrade in a timely manner.

“The major pay and display machine manufacturers begun the upgrades over 12 months ago and are also starting to incorporate acceptance of the new coin on new equipment being manufactured and delivered.”

The process in upgrading the machines involves making sure the new size and weight is recognised.

Vending machines

Richard Callwood, owner of Border Vending, based in the North West, said they were reprogramming all their machines to make sure they accepted both the round pound and the new pound in the crossover period.

He said: “The new pound coins are a slightly different size and weight so we need to reprogram the machines to accept the old and the new.

“We have a big counting machine that counts all the cash too, and that has also been reprogrammed.”

Border Vending has around 400 machines all in all and most of them have been refitted.

Trolleys

Trolleys raise the issue of not only the coins themselves - but also the round tokens. Will they still work? Will they be replaced?

Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda all confirmed they were updating their trolleys to fit the new coins - but trolley tokens will still definitely work in all of them.